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WILLMAR, Minn. — The Stingers came into Monday riding their longest winning streak of the season, and they made it even longer by sweeping a doubleheader from the Mankato MoonDogs at the Beehive.
The Stingers put the exclamation point on the sweep with a thrilling, extra-inning walk-off in game two of the doubleheader, as Justin Toerner (Cal State Northridge) singled with the bases loaded to give Willmar (11-10) a 2-1 victory.
That win in the second game was made possible by the Stingers answering a one-run deficit in the sixth inning. The MoonDogs (12-9) scored a single run in the top of the sixth, but for the second time during the course of the doubleheader the Stingers scored right back.
Greg Lambert (Southern Illinois) went 3-for-3 in the second game, and walked to start the rally in the bottom of the sixth. He moved to second with Devin Foyle (Kansas) at the plate, and then Luke Becker scored Lambert with an RBI single.
The game stayed scoreless until the bottom half of the ninth thanks to two scoreless innings of relief from Max Green (Pepperdine) after a superb outing from Jonny Ortiz. Ortiz went seven innings and allowed just one run on four hits while striking out six.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Stingers came back from a one-run deficit in the second inning to win, 4-2. The Stingers got all four runs in the bottom of the second inning, and it took only one hit to get all four of those runs.
Becker walked to start the inning, Travis Wacker doubled, and Brandon Perez got hit by a pitch to load the bases. A sac fly by Quincy McAfee tied the game, and a hit by pitch, walk and a wild pitch plated the final three runs of the inning.
Kiko Garcia (Pepperdine) pitched five strong innings of relief to pick up his first win of the season in the first game. Garcia allowed just one run and struck out four.
Winners of their last five games, the Stingers travel to Mankato on Tuesday to finish the season series with the MoonDogs before an off day on Wednesday.
Tonight’s Center for Diagnostic Imaging player of the game was Greg Lambert. CDI is your local medical imaging provider. It’s your choice where you go for medical imaging, for MRI, CT, mammograms and pain injections, choose CDI. Visit online at myCDI.com/CentralMN.
The 2016 Stingers season is presented by Marcus Construction. For more coverage of the Stingers visit the West Central Tribune online at www.wctrib.com.